


Who We Are

by pallysuune



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:42:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 4,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29684148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallysuune/pseuds/pallysuune
Summary: A series of small one shots around various secondary characters and their feelings toward the one girl who always seems involved when crazy things happen.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	1. Tecton

**Author's Note:**

> There are so many secondary or periphery characters that I thought it might be fun to explore and maybe flesh out a little with my own ideas and things. Especially about their feelings about the one person at the center of the story, Taylor.
> 
> I don't own anything, of course. This is just a fan work. 
> 
> If there's a character you'd like to see me explore, please let me know.

His workshop was filled with parts and pieces of things, scattered across every flat surface, grouped together roughly based on what table they were on. A laptop on one near the left-hand wall was playing some documentary that no one was paying any attention to. Another computer beside it was open to a word document covered in several notes. 

Everett himself was half hidden behind the bulk of metal that was the torso of a new prototype power armor, asleep, slumped over the desk. Someone had wandered by and shut off the overhead light so the room was only dimly lit by the computers. It wasn’t a particularly unusual sight around the headquarters. Things weren’t going super great for him at home, and he spent increasing amounts of time at the PRT HQ instead, throwing himself into his work. There was worse things he could be doing with his time, he figured, and that was probably why no one bothered him about it. 

The alarm on his phone went off, incessant and sharp, and his head jerked up. It took a second to recognize the sound, and he reached for it around scrap parts on his table, missed, and knocked it into the gap between the table and the one beside it. 

“Fuck.” 

The beeping was still going off as he rubbed a hand over his face with a sigh, pushing his chair back at the same time. He had to climb under the table to reach it and turn the alarm off. Twenty minutes until his patrol. Not enough time to get the new armor working. It would be awesome when he did get it finished. He’d been working on refining his gauntlets and the shock absorption, testing the tensile strength to optimize materials, streamlining it all. He was proud of the work on it so far. 

The natural progression of that thought led to another. The whole reason for the prototype armor, besides the nearly compulsive need to build that his power gave, was because Weaver had helped him find some pretty devastating weaknesses of his current set up - including the fact that any sort of EMP would take out the computer workings and render him trapped inside the heavy armor. Small things, like her bugs, could get in to do a lot of damage, too, which meant there was always the possibility others could have powers that could exploit those weaknesses. 

He sat under the desk, waking up slowly and thinking. 

Weaver was doing well there, he thought. Despite the PRT trying to sabotage her any chance they got. It was so obvious, they all knew it. They did what they could to help. Everett still stood by his decision to back her when she first became a member of their team. She was smart and strategic and a huge credit to them. He’d never had any hesitation in given her the reins in the field. She was better at in-the-moment calls than he was and he knew it. He’d thought once that she might have been the better overall leader for them, but no. There was a lot of things that went into leading a team of heroes that Weaver wasn’t cut out for. Like interviews and public appearances. 

Hard to believe someone who was so confident in the midst of an Endbringer attack was so shy when speaking in front of a peaceful crowd. 

She was a large part of why the team operated as well as it did, he was sure. He was glad to have her. And he’d have liked to call her a friend, but still, after so long, it was so obvious how she held them at arms length. _She_ never considered herself one of them. She still considered herself one of the Undersiders at heart, and that bothered him. She’d been with the Wards longer, had done so many good things with them, had fought beside them in more battles, they’d put a lot on the line to support her time and again. He was pretty sure she appreciated it, but it still irked him some that they were second fiddle to her old villain team. 

Only some, though. It was never worth actually getting upset about. And maybe in time Taylor would open up to them some more. Realize that they _liked_ her and wanted to be her friend, regardless of her past. 

His phone beeped again and he glanced down at it, then, grumbling to himself, crawled out from under the table, dusted himself off, and went to go get his armor on. A hero’s job was never done.


	2. Charlotte

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know if there's any characters you'd like to see.
> 
> Up next: Brian

If there was one thing that united the people of Brockton Bay, one unifying thread that most of them could agree to if they actually thought about it, it was the idea that this wasn’t how it was supposed to be. 

None of them expected Leviathan to attack the city. None of them expected to be either fleeing from their homes, or staying to face what came after. She sure as hell hadn’t. Staying because she had no where else to go after she stepped out of the Endbringer shelter and saw the ruin that had come. How it turned someplace so familiar into something entirely different. Alien. 

And then there was the Merchants, and she just didn’t want to think about any of that. 

“Come on, go wash your hands, dinner’s almost done,” she said, shooing the gaggle of children out of the kitchen. Among the chorus of groans and chatter, they hurried out, leaving Charlotte alone to finish up the rest of their meal. 

If Skitter hadn’t saved her that night, none of this would have happened. It would have been much worse. She knew that. She was lucky. Which really said something about the state of the world when she considered being the pseudo-second to a criminal warlord to be lucky. It couldn’t be denied, though, how much good Skitter had done for the territory. They were way better off than others in the city. More than that, she’d brought them together. They were a community through her, through the cookouts and things that she had Charlotte arrange. They were living again, instead of just getting by.

Months ago, if someone had told her that so much would have been done on the back of the mousy, bullied girl she saw at school, she might have laughed at them. Taylor Hebert hadn’t really been someone she knew, more someone she saw around. Someone she overlooked when she was being bullied and picked on. She thought about that sometimes. How things might have been different if she or someone else had stood up for Taylor instead of just letting it happen. Chances were, the only thing that would change was her getting bullied, too, but who knows? Maybe things would have been better.

Or maybe things would have been worse now. If Taylor didn’t trigger, didn’t become Skitter, didn’t take territory and hold it and protect it with a possessive viciousness that pit her against people that were literal _nightmares_ like Burnscar and Mannequin. Would half of them even be alive if someone had stood up for her all those months ago?

Though, maybe she was only thinking that to make herself feel better about the fact that she hadn't.

The kids came streaming back into the room, cutting off her train of thought. Charlotte found herself smiling a little bit down at them as she dished up their dinner. Rice, chicken, vegetables - they had decent enough food from the supplies Skitter was bringing in. She spared a thought for those who weren’t doing so well, but her primary concern had to be the kids under her charge, not anyone else. 

“Mark, go get Forrest,” she instructed one of the boys. 

“I’m right here.” 

The man was leaning against the kitchen doorway when Charlotte turned around, there, but not close enough to make her feel crowded. He’d caught on pretty quickly that he was intimidating to her and had been good about that. She offered him a smile and handed a plate over. 

Only when all the kids were settled down in the bunk room with their food did she get her own, lingering in the doorway where she could watch them, opposite where Forrest was doing the same. 

“School’s starting up soon,” he commented after a moment. Charlotte gave a noncommittal hum. “We’re in a good position for it.”

She glanced over at him, then thought it over. She’d not considered it before, but she guessed they were. A lot of the cleanup and reconstruction was going well, well enough that people from their territory had begun working farther away from their neighborhood, cleaning up the Boardwalk and things. Teenagers and older kids weren’t needed so much for work as they were in some other areas of the city. They were sitting in a good position to begin getting back to something like normal. 

And there was one person to really thank for that.

Things weren’t perfect, but they were getting by better than a lot of others. None of this would have been possible without Skitter, and, selfish as it may be, Charlotte couldn’t find it in herself to regret that her former classmate had become a villain, even if she and the other students at Winslow were partly to blame.


	3. Brian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got this one out pretty quick. As always, let me know if there's anyone you'd like to see a one shot for.
> 
> Next up: Lisa

This wasn’t exactly what he’d envisioned his future to be like. 

Honestly, all he’d wanted was to get custody of Aisha and have enough money to live comfortably. He was fine with being a mid-grade villain for the rest of his life. Or, better yet, retiring from being a villain. He didn’t need all the craziness that came with it. He didn’t want to rule the world. He didn’t even care all that much about saving it, frankly. He cared about his sister and his friends.

He refused to admit it, but the truth was, he wasn’t cut out for leading the group controlling a city. He didn’t have the right personality to head that kind of big operation. All he could do was try to pretend he did. Keep up the illusion, the reputation, do what he could, and hope no one called him out on it. Maybe, someday, he’d be able to get out of this life and just get back to something more quiet. Leave the criminal warlord business to Lisa and Taylor and, fuck, even Aisha. 

Taylor had taken over as the leader of the Undersiders because he wasn’t coping well after Bonesaw caught him. It might have been one of the best things that could have happened. It hurt his pride to admit it, but it was true. He had no problem following her orders, he trusted her, and she took to it a lot more naturally than he had. Fuck, she even got _Rachel_ to listen to her better in a few months than he had managed to in over a year.  
Even this was because of her, he thought, looking around. He was out of costume, and had been walking, surveying. His territory was still having problems with small gangs and groups of looters, Taylor’s territory was doing far better in that regard, and he was trying to figure out what she was doing that was more effective than what he was. It really wasn’t all that hard to figure out. She was proactive. And her power was oddly suited to it. To rooting out rats and killing them, getting insects out of people’s living areas, letting the humans focus on rebuilding instead of struggling to get by. She was ruthless against anyone who stole or assaulted any of her people, too. Which was kind of concerning to him, personally, but it definitely made her area safer. 

He worried how far it would go, though. Remembering who she’d been when she’d first come to them, and seeing how she was now, it was like looking at a whole different person. He cared for her - he might even go so far as to say he loved her - but it worried him. How much would she continue to change? It was pretty damn obvious she wasn’t meant for settling in any way. Not settling as just holding a bit of territory in the Bay. Not settling for just getting Dinah free. 

She was the kind of woman who was meant to change the world. 

Brian’s territory bordered Taylor’s. It wasn’t a sharp divide, but if you looked close, you could tell. Small things, little differences. It started looking a little cleaner. The worst buildings were weeded out, clearly torn down on purpose. A lot of the outlying streets were less populated; the people there had moved closer to the area around Skitter’s hideout where it was the most stable. It was kind of amazing when one thought about where the city was only a few weeks ago when the Nine were running all over the place.

It was a fitting word for her, honestly. Amazing. Terrifying and too-good-to-be-true all at once. And he liked being with her, he really did. In the midst of everything that was going on, it was the little bit of respite he had, but he couldn’t help but wonder how long it would last. What kind of future did they have together? How long would it be until he became her weakness and put her in danger? More than he already had, that is. Or before they were put in a position where they would have to choose between each other and the city. He knew what his choice would be. And he was pretty sure he knew what hers would be, too. 

He couldn’t even say she would be wrong, either. 

He would have been happy just being a professional, mid-level villain. Taylor wouldn’t stop pushing until she’d saved the world. It was something he loved about her, but it didn’t make those two life views compatible. And it didn’t mean he wouldn’t end up possibly holding her back some day. 

A wasp drifted past him, turned and came back, landing on his arm briefly before taking flight to land again on his hair. Taylor, identifying him. He just kept walking, not bothered by the insect. It wouldn’t sting him. He hadn’t _planned_ on seeing her, but with the depressing, growing suspicion that things weren’t going to end well for them, he found he just really wanted to see her. Spend a little time with her before things inevitably ended.

It would end, but he'd keep supporting her in any way he could. He had faith in her, even if he didn't have faith in _them._


	4. Lisa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really glad you guys are enjoying these. They're all just my interpretation of various characters, but it's fun to think about them. 
> 
> I'm hoping to have the next up soon, later tonight, maybe, or tomorrow. I kinda got stuck on the thought. 
> 
> Next: Jack Slash

Her office was dark, and not because of a migraine this time. She just needed a second to think without any input from her power, from the various sources of news and info. Taylor had turned herself in to the PRT, just walked right in and surrendered. And now Taylor was in jail until they decided if she was going to be a member of the Wards or not, Alexandria was dead, Director Tagg was dead, and the whole city of Brockton Bay was reeling. 

She should have seen this coming. Yeah, her power had been out of commission, but still. She was supposed to know things, that was her schtick. 

Taylor had timed it purposefully so she wouldn’t know and be able to stop her. Lisa knew that logically. It still didn’t change the fact that she felt like she should have been able to figure it out. She’d known something was wrong, she just hadn’t known what. When Tay came to her lair, it had _felt_ like a goodbye. She knew Taylor had a bit of a martyr streak, but she’d never have expected anything like this. 

Of course, it made sense. The world was crumbling down around them in a lot of ways. Lisa was content to keep her sight on things there, on Brockton and the portal and all the dealings that she was a part of. The whole world had never been her focus. Oh, of course she would help stop the end of the world when it came, but shoring up the failing Protectorate? Yeah, pass. Taylor wasn’t like that, though. Taylor actually cared about that kind of thing. About trying to unify and make things better for everyone. She couched it in the idea that they’d only survive this and the Endbringers by being unified, but the truth was Taylor always was a hero deep down. She always had been. 

A hero willing to do a hell of a lot of villainous shit, but a hero nonetheless. 

Lisa glanced over toward the boards at the back of the room, stationed carefully where she could see them behind the TVs and computers. All the little links, all the unanswered questions, notes she’d gotten, contacts she needed to check on. Cauldron, Endbringers, Jack, powers. All these mysteries she was working on. They were important. She’d get back to them soon, but for the moment, she just slumped in her chair, head resting back and closing her eyes. 

Taylor was her best friend. Quite possibly her only real friend. She’d fucked her over pretty bad in the past, getting her involved in all of this, but Taylor had forgiven her somehow. She wasn’t the same awkward girl that Lisa had first met. She’d grown into her own, and now she’d continue to grow away from them. 

She sighed. 

Well, it was pretty clear what she had to do. 

Taylor was doing everything she thought was necessary to save the world. As her best friend, the least Lisa could do was make sure things went alright in the Bay while she was gone, and try to hold up her end of things. Mark off some of those mysteries on the board. She made a note to come up with a code that Taylor could break so she could send letters to her in something approaching private, to keep her in the loop. 

Sitting forward, she punched a few keys on the computer keyboard. The monitors lit up, the overhead lights springing to life a second later, and then the TVs following after, all of them tuned to different news channels, all of them on mute. She set a counter on her desktop, opened a browser, and got to work.

Taylor would do what she could to stop the end of the world. Lisa would make sure there was something to come back to when she was done.


	5. Jack Slash

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't usually do super villainous characters, but I couldn't get this one out of my head. Writing Jack wasn't as hard as expected, but thing it to Taylor took some thinking.
> 
> This is for gothiiknight, thank you for suggesting it, dear.
> 
> Next up: Dinah

They had put Brockton Bay behind them, Cherish locked away in her punishment as tidy as could be. Loose ends were never a slightly thing to leave behind, after all. But there was precious few of them left. Himself, Bonesaw, Siberian, and Hookwolf. It was too small, far too small, but it was manageable, at least. It might have been disastrous if it was any _other_ combination, but with Hookwolf kept in check by Bonesaw's plague, and Siberian driven by her fondness for Bonesaw, it was a ragged group of psychopaths that he could maintain control over, and that, for the moment, was the most important part. 

After all, he had to make sure he was around for his part in the final act, didn’t he?

Wasn’t that an amusing thought? Like a butterfly flapped it’s wing to make a hurricane elsewhere in the world, a murderer would flick his knife and end it. Beautiful. 

At the driver’s seat of the blacked-out van, he smirked at the thought. The road stretched out dark in front of them, unlit and untraveled save for their van and another following. Manton’s. A back road, the easiest for them to slip out, with enough of a head start to ensure they wouldn’t be caught any time soon. It was a tactical retreat, a concession for a game well played, not them slinking away with their tails between their legs. Bonesaw slept in the back seat, curled against Siberian’s side. Hookwolf was in the passenger’s seat. Jack paid him little mind.

He had plans already. They needed some more recruits if they wanted to make it as truly impactful as he'd like. It would be a wonderful clash when it happened, regardless, and they had the edge already. Their reputation, despite the hit it may have taken in Brockton Bay, was still enough to strike fear into people. Besides, conventional capes could barely get along for a few hours. In a fight on his terms, they would crumble. He just needed to make sure everything was in place. 

Especially because he was certain a specific little _bug_ was sure to be involved. 

Cherish had called her the Worm when she’d talked about the players in Brockton Bay. Cherish had underestimated her. Jack had underestimated her too. The girl was no worm, she was a cockroach. The sort of vermin that might survive a nuclear apocalypse. It had been amusing, at first, when she had first sent Mannequin back to them minus a head and an arm. But then she simply refused to die and became a thorn in his side, even interrupting his final attempts to sway Panacea to their side. He was quite sure he could have gotten the healer, too, if not for her involvement. 

He liked to think he was fair good at reading people - he could have chuckled at the understatement of that - and he had gotten a decent bit of insight on Skitter. She was the sort of person who couldn’t leave well enough alone. The sort who would dig in and refuse to be moved. The sort who would not accept the end of the world lightly. Nor was she the sort to sit idle. Mannequin had targeted her because she was doing something to help people. No, more than that, she was doing a _good job_ helping people. Instead of being scared off that by the tinker, she had doubled down, even going so far as to go on the attack against the Nine. A rare fear, indeed. 

Skitter would be there when the end of the world came. While it was something to keep in mind, it wasn’t his ultimate concern. His game was with Theo Anders, after all. Skitter would just prove to be an interesting handicap and little more. 

And, oh, wouldn’t it be so satisfying when she was squished?


	6. Dinah

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dinah is so hard for me, honestly. Hope I did alright at least. 
> 
> Let me know if you'd like to see anyone.
> 
> Up next: Theo

Being able to tell the future wasn't as great as it sounded. Especially when you knew how many horrible things you had to go through to get the ending you wanted. 

For example: if she'd never been kidnapped, she never would have 'met' Taylor Hebert, and would have predicted the end of the world much later, meaning Skitter would not have done the things she'd done, both in the name of saving Dinah, and in the name of saving the world, reducing their chances of survival dramatically. Did that mean she _liked_ being held a drugged-up prisoner for months on end? Fuck no. All it meant was that she saw the bigger picture of it. 

People who talked about the butterfly effect weren't actually that far off. Small things made big changes. One person made big changes. 

Thinking of Taylor again. 

The fact was, a lot of things would be different if she never triggered. Things that seemed so far out of her control even. Like Leviathan. The Endbringer seemed like a natural disaster, unpredictable and non influenceable. Yet, patterns showed that he was drawn to areas with a lot of conflict, especially parahuman conflict. The reason he'd been drawn to Brockton Bay was likely because of the rampage Bakuda and Lung were on. 

And why were they on a rampage? Because a no-name girl was the catalyst that caused Lung to be taken down, seriously injured, and sentenced to the Birdcage. 

If Skitter had never debuted that night, Lung might not have been caught and then sprung, Bakuda might not have started her bombing, Leviathan might not have attacked, the Nine might not have come, the - well, you get the picture. 

One small person who changed the course of everything.

It was amazing when it was laid out like that. Amazing that _anything_ ever happened the way it was supposed to. The things that needed to happen years before to influence how things would go in the future. It was hard to fathom, even for her, and she was far more equipped to deal with it then most. 

But she was sure of some things. The numbers didn't lie. 

She sat in the little room, her cell, waiting for when Coil decided he wanted his pet again and she knew Taylor would save her. It was one of the only things keeping her sane. It wouldn't even be long now. 

Taylor would save her and she'd repay her by setting her on a path that would isolate her and tear her up inside. She hated that she had to do that to her, but it was the best chance they all had. There were things that raised their chances of success and a lot of them centered around Taylor Hebert. If there was another way… but there wasn't. 

Dinah hated that she had to break the one person who deserved it possibly the least. But just as so much of this chain reaction would start with Taylor, it would end because of her, too. 

She just hoped Taylor could forgive her.


	7. Theo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Theo is probably one of my favorite secondary characters.
> 
> Also fun fact: I haven't actually finished Worm yet, and I live in fear that something will happen to ruin Theo and some of my other favorite characters. XD
> 
> Next up: I dunno yet. Oops.

He slowed to a stop, panting roughly, and fought the natural inclination to double over, putting his hands above his head instead and focusing on drawing in breath after breath. 

Two years and he was still pretty shitty at running.

It was alright, though. Running wouldn't save the world, and he was better in other areas. Better, but good enough? He didn't know. He'd have to be, he guessed. 

Two years, he'd been working toward one goal: fighting Jack Slash. He hadn't known about the end of the world thing at first, but when he'd met Taylor and they talked, they put two and two together and suddenly, his showdown had even higher stakes. 

Not that they'd been insignificant in the first place. 

Taylor and others had helped him channel the bone-shatteting terror of it all into training. It was about the only thing he could do. Not doing the fight wasn't an option. He couldn't fail everyone like that. He had to succeed _somehow_. He spent his free time studying videos of Slash, trying to understand the man. He felt if he could understand him better, he could maybe predict him some, and he'd have an edge. 

What he realized, though, was that Jack's opponent, his real foil, wasn't Theo. It was Taylor. All the strategy, all the planning, the moves and counter moves and thinking five steps ahead of everyone - Theo didn't have that in him. That was Weaver. She was the mastermind of this and all the rest of them were just her tools. This whole thing was like one awful, horrible game of chess. Even if he was the King, Taylor was the player, moving them, guiding them, setting up their best chances of success. 

In some ways, it was sobering, knowing that so much was being put on his shoulders when he wasn't the right person to do it. In others, it was almost a relief. He _trusted_ Taylor. He knew of all of them she had the best chance of getting them through this. He believed in her.

He took a deeper breath and let it out in a huff, no longer panting. If he was to be the tool that took out Jack, then he had to be sure he was in as best of shape he could be. Honed. Sharpened. He knew what his limitations were, but there were things he could do, things only he could do. He'd make sure he was as good at them as possible, give Taylor the best tools she could get in this game.

Turning toward the HQ, Theo set off at a jog. Everyone else was doing their part. He'd do his too, even if it wasn't actually as big as everyone assumed. He was okay with that in the end.


End file.
